A Unique Perspective on Educational Technology and Design in Higher Education.

Can’t believe #CUGradChat for @CU_GARS is still going strong since its first live broadcast in 2013. It’s an innovative tool to simulate community, recruit new graduates for the @CU_HESA program, and capture story of current students in the program. #SAgrad #SAchat #SAtech

The concept of assigning a selfie in class is to make the learning scenario a more authentic experience through social learning (Bandura & Walters, 1977).

After reading the ‘ECONSelfie’ article (2016), I discovered that creating a selfie assignment for students to demonstrate their understanding of a topic and create original material ranks in the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956). Below was my submission for “Technology in Learning.” Imagine if you designed your curriculum with a demonstration, evaluation, and creation activity assignment like the Selfie in Learning. You might be surprised the submissions you receive.

In 2013, the Clemson University Higher Education, Student Affairs (@CU_HESA) graduate program wanted to find a way for prospective students to make a decision about Clemson before having to travel to South Carolina for face-to-face interviews (@CU_GARS). I, in a recruitment and selection position, was able to train and put a team together to broadcast our first live Google+ Hangout On Air accompanied with live chat on Facebook and Twitter. This was an innovative strategy to connect with a prospective, self-selected community at the time, and I believe still is an innovative technique to promote story from peers to peers. The idea to promote community and to give space for peers to interact and share lessons learned online is one I try to use with the learners I interact with everyday. Currently, I have a Facebook group, a GroupMe chat, and discussion posts within a Learning Management System (LMS) for the L.E.A.R.N. program. In these spaces, students are able to interact in an online community environment, and share their stories when prompted. In the future, I would like to create a more interactive space for the peer mentors, or student leaders, within the scholarship program to recruit, and begin to train, the next cohort of peer mentors. Since the current peer mentors have already been trained in the art of storytelling, I would like to have the peer mentors in the spotlight on a live broadcast to share their stories and leadership development. This way, we would be able to share their stories digitally to spread the impact of their leadership skills, recruit the next cohort of leaders, and use their stories as positive examples of the program.

My first idea to use QR codes was for a scavenger hunt on UCF’s campus for students new to the campus to physically explore the campus and learn about the resources by using QR codes at the specific offices (Cauley, 2011). Miller also references scavenger hunts as a normal response as a way to utilize QR codes within the classroom (2014). Since I found my idea as repetitive, and not that creative, I wanted to look deeper into ways I could use QR codes to help promote learning. Miller’s list of twelve ideas helped me jumpstart my brainstorming (2014):

Teaching students to effectively utilize QR codes and other virtual reality (VR) options could help when students start creating research posters. Using technology to strengthen undergraduate research posters for STEM-related projects could help students communicate their technical research to a wider audience by using exemplars (Miller, 2014).

I have used QR codes to help in saving trees and assigning class assignments (Miller, 2014; Cauley, 2011). Since I work in a small office, saving money on ink and paper is a large concern. For a long URL to a class assignment, I would shorten the URL and post the QR code on a Powerpoint presentation. This way, students could follow to the assignment whichever way they were most comfortable with on their mobile device.

Cauley’s list emphasizes QR codes to assign homework assignments or to link to important forms (2011). I utilize QR codes to mostly help with completing in class assessments (Cauley, 2011). I do believe that giving a student feedback via QR code would be an interesting and individualized experience (Cauley, 2011). I would be willing to try giving a QR code for feedback on a student’s writing connected to a video of me giving solid, individualized advice on how they may be able to better their writing. This effort could help me build rapport with my students.

I created a quick summer curriculum for our student leaders to meta-cognitively reflect on their experiences transitioning to the University of Central Florida. The above link to a WikiSpace is the Curriculum page I created. Below is the outline for the summer project:

Setup Assignment – I run a scholarship program at the University of Central Florida, where the student in the program receives a 5-star mentoring experience. One of these mentors is a peer mentor, a student who has previously been a part of the program and currently in upper-level courses.

Even though coursework is a part of the LEARN student experience, I wanted to stretch a little further to create an assignment to integrate into the peer mentor training while the students are not on campus over the summer. My hope is that the peer mentors will create a digital story for their mentees full of their advice and a personal transition story.

Assignment Introduction – The Sway presentation here will be an introduction to digital storytelling and show the peer mentors first-hand what a project could look like. Pictures, video, sound and interactive media are all welcome in a digital transition story.

Reflection Exercise – I plan to scaffold their assignment by asking the peer mentors to reflect on their transition to UCF from their state college or high school. Engaging in a metacognitive activity will help students remember what it was like to come to a new university, socialize, and understand the academic rigors demanded of them in a STEM discipline at UCF.

Storyboarding – Next, I will ask the peer mentors to take their reflection and translate it to a story board with the tool from EducationWorld.com: https://t.co/9V2jyDYMdU

Tech Tools – After the storyboard makes sense and the peer mentors are able to give reviews of each others’ story boards, I will introduce the different technologies that could make a digital transition story possible. Below are link farms of different tools that could help a student create a digital transition story.

Rubric for Assignment – If I were grading this assignment, I would then modify Schrock’s K12 Digital Storytelling Rubric for higher education students: https://t.co/dz4WGwvcDo

The Why – I would then let the students send out their digital transition stories to their mentees before the fall semester begins as an introduction and virtual meet-n-greet for the students to feel as though the peer mentors a approachable.

The outcome of the curriculum posted above is posted below. I was given permission to post the two examples below by each student.

This first podcast introduces the concept of computational thinking in undergraduate research. The podcast series was created for use in the second (spring) semester of a first-year learning community, L.E.A.R.N., created to help first-generation and underrepresented students in STEM get involved in undergraduate research. Through the podcast series, I am seeking to preview the concept of computational thinking before it is covered in the 1 credit Introduction to Research II course for the LEARN program.

This second podcast in the computational thinking in undergraduate research series covers computational thinking and its application to the logistical process of analyzing and organizing literature for a literature review. LEARN students write a short research proposal of their research topic area that has been decided upon with their graduate research mentor or faculty mentor in the research lab. This podcast aims to supplement the conversation in class and help students think through the process of organizing their literature to create a narrative for their literature review for their proposal.

Podcast, Episode 3*Computational Thinking in Undergraduate Research – Transferring the Problem-Solving Process to Social Media

In the last podcast of this mini-series, I attempt to make the connection between analyzing and organizing reputable sources to create a literature review and analyzing and sharing viral posts on social media. When managing your online identity as a student, you want to pay attention to the brand you are promoting with the posts you comment on or share within your profile. Attempting to help students transfer computational thinking principles, to a wide variety of decisions will not only help them manage their brand as a paraprofessional, but will help student develop digital citizenship by applying computational thinking principles outside of the classroom.

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*As a part of University of Central Florida’s Educational Technology/eLearning Graduate Certificate, I am taking EME 6053, Teaching and Learning with Emerging Technologies. For the assignment in the course, I was asked to add the podcasts to an online website. The music for this podcast was obtained through an Education license from Freeplay Music LLC.

Video and Audio Editing, Screen Capture and Lesson Composition

I created a video tutorial to help prospective transfer students understand the intricacies of credit transfer. In December 2015, I was at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) working on a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation transfer, STEM retention grant.

As a pre-transfer STEM advisor to prospective UMBC students, I found myself answering the same question: “The courses that I’ve taken, what do they count as at UMBC?”

In the state of Maryland, there are transfer equivalencies set up for each course at each institution. It can become a daunting task to a student trying to take the exact amount of classes for the least time to degree. So I created a video to point students in the direction to find their own answers so that they become advocates for themselves before, during and after transfer.

This video covers online resources to utilize when planning to transfer credits. For the most updated information regarding course equivalencies, always consult with the Registrar’s Office at your prospective institution.

Google+ Hangouts On Air – Take 2

After using Google+ Hangouts On Air for inter-department training, I had the idea to use the same technology, but for intra-institutional recruitment for the Counselor Education graduate program. Thankfully my position as the Training and Selection GA for University Housing and Dining Services (which had almost half of the graduate assistants for the university in the Counselor Education program) put me in a good position to be able to take the lead on the new recruitment tool for the University GA selection weekend, called CU-GARS or Clemson University Graduate Assistant Recruitment and Selection weekend.

This initiative was started in February 2013 to engage the students we were trying to recruit and informally give the information that prospective graduate students wanted to know about the program. By using social media (Twitter and Facebook) hashtags, we were able to communicate with and give advice in real time to the prospective students of the program. This process was inspired by the infamous #SAchat.

What you do not see in the video is the training, planning and marketing it took to put this new initiative together. Not only did each individual graduate students on the video need to know how to use Google+ Hangouts, they also needed to come from a well-rounded experience on campus. I sat down with each individual before we went live to make sure they were comfortable using the technology and how the session was going to go before we actually went through with it.

The prospective students who tuned in to watch the video live needed to know how to communicate with those of us on the video. So marketing about how to use the hashtag #CUGradChat was important for this initiative to take shape at the time it was implemented. Hashtags are very well-known now. Also, we asked for all of the graduate students off the G+ video to watch the backchannel and answer questions via the hashtag to make sure that all the questions were answered by each prospective student even if we did not get to each question on the G+ video. Take a look at the 1st and 2nd ever #CUGradChat. Below in the quoted block text, you’ll find the instructions that the prospective students needed to follow.

First #CUGARSGradChat – February 11, 2013

Second #CUGARSGradChat – February 23, 2013

The Student Affairs graduate students got together for a panel-like session for Clemson University Grad Assistant Recruitment & Selection weekend (CUGARS) candidates. We are here to answer any and all questions that the candidates (YOU!) might have about grad school, Clemson, our program in particular and our lives here.

We will be streaming a youtube video LIVE for you all to watch, listen and PARTICIPATE in the panel!

It’s simple to join. Click the YouTube link, click on the live video showing in the feed labeled “CUGARS GradChat”, watch the video live and participate in discussion on Twitter with the Hashtag #CUGradChat; tag @CU_GARS13 and on the CU GARS 2013 Facebook Group wall.

We will be taking questions you tweet us with the hashtag and post on our fb wall for the current grads to answer. So tune into CUGARS GradChat at 8:00pm EST on Monday, February 11th.

Are you busy at that time? No worries! You can watch the YouTube video later when you have a chance. Just be sure to be there if you can, so that you can get your questions answered!

Don’t miss the 2nd #CUGradChat on 2/26 at 8:00pm EST all about CUGARS interview weekend!
(Even if you do miss it, the video will still be here when you get back!)

Google+ Hangouts On Air

At Clemson in 2012, as a graduate student, I had a unique experience having an administrative role within University Housing & Dining. I was the first grad to be granted the assistantship for Training & Selection.

In the video below, I was able to train professional staff and graduate students, whose offices reside in multiple areas of the campus, by using Google+ Hangouts On Air. By using this technology, I was able to train staff to conduct interviews for leadership positions within the department.

As you can tell in the first 2 minutes of the video, I was also training staff to use the technology while we were using it. This training was put online in order to help save time from meetings and walking across campus. The beauty of On Air Hangouts was that it would automatically be available after “filming” so that those staff members that could not make the meeting timeslot, would still get the same training.

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My name is Colleen (Marquart) Smith. I am a current HigherEd professional integrating educational technology practices to help students learn non-cognitive skills. Follow my Blog or check out my Resume to see what topics I’m exploring next.